Free Republic

The meeting of Ron Paul activists was well under way when organizer Steven Talcott Smith offered the kind of basic advice you probably wouldn't hear at a gathering of any other Republican presidential candidate's supporters. "By the way," Smith told the Internet-driven "meet-up" of about 40 people at a library west of Boynton Beach, "by the end of this year everybody in this room should plan to be a Republican." Florida's Jan. 29 Republican primary is, not surprisingly, limited to registered GOP voters. But a Republican pedigree or a familiarity with the elections process cannot be taken for granted with...

Oakland medical marijuana patient and activist Angel Raich dropped her lawsuit against the federal government Thursday, ending a five-year legal odyssey which had taken her all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. "I've lost all faith in the judicial system, I don't understand how somebody can lose their constitutional right to life in this country," she said Thursday. "It's been really, really hard for me these last few months, and I wasn't happy about having to give up the case. "But I'm really having a hard time medically speaking right now -- my brain tumor has finally started causing...

420 Claim:   The term '420' entered drug parlance as a term signifying the time to light up a joint. Status:   True.   Origins:   Odd terms sneak into our language every now and then, and this is one of the oddest. Everyone who considers himself in the know about the drug subculture has heard that '420' has something to do with illegal drug use, but when you press them, they never seem to know why, or even what the term supposedly signifies. “I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a...

Craig X Video: A Higher Calling at Temple 420 HOLLYWOOD - The Rev. Craig X Rubin read aloud a passage from 1 Kings as the sun set and his congregation prepared for the Sabbath. Flicking a lighter to the lone candle atop the podium, Rubin burned a bud of marijuana on the flame. He puffed it out, walked to each of the eight members sitting in the pews and waved the smoldering cannabis around them. This, Rubin proclaims, carries the prayers of Temple 420 to God. That's the God of Isaac and of Jesus, because members are Christians and...

Gonzaga basketball players Josh Heytvelt and Theo Davis were arrested after police found marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms in their car during a traffic stop.

He looks like a good cop. He's got the 'stache, the short-cropped hair, the pushed-out chest and the shiny badge. He sounds like a good cop too; drawled and official. He's got a TV reporter's microphone in his face and a brick of marijuana in his hand, and he's answering questions—not in the "I just accidentally Tasered an old lady" kind of way, but with a grin of accomplishment. The total bust was in the neighborhood of 275 pounds. This is the old Barry Cooper. Top cop. Total prick. He claims more than 300 felony drug arrests during his eight...

Investigators from the Counter Narcotics Alliance seized as much as 7,000 pounds of marijuana south of Downtown Thursday morning and arrested four people on drug charges, officials said. Authorities estimated the wholesale value of the marijuana at $500 per pound, which means the bust could have a value of $3.5 million. Members of the multi- agency Counter Narcotics Alliance raided Bearing-Belt & Chain Inc., 430 W. 22nd St., at about 8:30 a.m. and seized an estimated 5,000 pounds of marijuana, said Lt. Kelly J. Lane of the Tucson Police Department. Earlier that day, around 6 a.m., police officers pulled over...

MIAMI (AP) — Michael Vick reluctantly surrendered a water bottle to security at Miami International Airport that contained a residue "closely associated with marijuana." Police said Thursday that no charges immediately were filed. The 26-year-old Atlanta Falcons quarterback entered an airport concourse Wednesday morning with the 20-ounce bottle. He eventually handed it over and boarded his flight to Atlanta. But his initial reluctance to turn over the bottle aroused suspicion among airport security screeners, a police report said. Two Transportation Security Administration screeners recognized the 6-foot, 215-pound Vick. The bottle was found to have a hidden compartment that contained "a...

HANGING ROCK — Two wrestling superstars from Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment may be tough in the ring, but they didn’t have enough muscle to escape drug charges after being stopped Sunday night by the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Robert Alex Szatowski, aka WWE and ECW champion Rob Van Dam, and Terry Michael Brunk, aka Sabu, also a former ECW champion, were pulled over on U.S. 52, near Patrick Street in Hanging Rock at about 10:15 p.m. The two were apparently driving from their performances at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena earlier in the evening. According to the...

HANOVER, Pa. - A 13-year-old boy told police his mother required him to do his homework first thing when he got off the school bus, then smoked marijuana with him as a reward. The mother said she had been smoking marijuana with her son since he was 11, usually as a reward, according to court documents. The police interview came after officers executed a search warrant at the woman's home last weekend and seized marijuana, an array of drug paraphernalia and $600 in cash that she said belonged to a drug dealer, court documents said. Amanda Lynn Livelsberger, 30, faces...

Here’s the smokin’ 411 on 420 Hearne Christopher Jr. * More Hearne Christopher, Jr. April Fools’ Day, tax day — what’s next? May Day? Not quite. First we have to slip past April 20, or “420” in stoner parlance. That’s the date many marijuana smokers celebrate in recognition of 420 being the unofficial but widely recognized term for the time to light up a joint. Which brings us to the 420 event planned by our friends at Munchiez in Westport, Brandi and Lisa Blair. The couple dishes up Ding Dongs, Ho Hos, Gummi Bears, cheese puffs, sandwiches and other munchies...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 2006 – About 420 detainees, including five women, were to be released from coalition detention facilities in Iraq today and tomorrow, officials announced. The Iraqi-led Combined Review and Release Board reviewed the detainees' cases and recommended that they be released. The board, established in August 2004, consists of members from the ministries of Human Rights, Justice and Interior, as well as officers from the multinational forces, officials noted. To date, the board has reviewed the cases of more than 26,900 detainees, recommending more than 14,100 individuals for release. In other news, Iraqi soldiers from the 2nd Battalion,...

Both college towns, Boston and Boulder, Colo., share another distinction: They lead the nation in marijuana use. Northwestern Iowa and southern Texas have the lowest use. For the first time, the government looked at the use of drugs, cigarettes, alcohol and various other substances, legal as well as illegal, by region rather than by state for a report Thursday. Regions could be as specific as Riverside, Calif., or as broad as all of the state of New York (minus New York City). Federal officials say the information will help states decide where they should spend money for treatment and prevention...

Who's roadtripping to Bong state park? Today is 4/20. Parents, do you know where your teenagers are? Few people know the number 420 is underground code for reefer badness, though it's been around for years. April 20 has been known as a skip day for students who want to be like Bill Clinton, except they do inhale. If you're putting your nose in the air to detect this today, I suggest 4:20 p.m. would be a good time. My sources - OK, my kid in college - tell me there's a buzz on campus of smoky parties set to break...

CREDIT: Jonathan Hayward, The Canadian Press Don Appleby died of his injuries suffered in an Oct. 12 explosion while he was trying to make a concentrated oil using marijuana and butane. Don Appleby's fight against the aids virus that was sapping him was made more difficult by a tragic paradox. While the Ottawa man was one of the few Canadians who could legally smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes, he could rarely afford it due to his minuscule disability pension. In the end, he was killed in the struggle to produce the drug that was helping him survive. On Oct. 12,...

Elementary school principal charged in drug case 08/02/2002 Associated Press Twin Falls -- An elementary school principal in Twin Falls is facing felony drug charges stemming from a marijuana investigation. Forty-eight year-old Mary Lee Roberts was arraigned Thursday on a charge of possession of a controlled substance. She was released and faces a preliminary hearing August ninth. The case started at a Houston post office. Authorities there intercepted a package addressed to Roberts. The package turned out to contain about a pound of marijuana. Court documents say Roberts later admitted to investigators that she had bought the pot in...